So far, so good from top three in Sox rotation

Credit: Matt Stone

ON TARGET: Jon Lester delivers a pitch during his start against the Pirates yesterday in Fort Myers. He allowed one run on two hits over four innings.

FORT MYERS — The trees have a way of blocking the view of the forest early in spring training.

If, say, Will Middlebrooks has a one-day wrist setback, or David Ortiz can’t run the bases one day, it’s end-of-the-Mayan-calendar time all over again and the Red Sox are doomed.

The truth — the forest — with the 2013 Red Sox, though, does not lie with fleeting or even real injuries to one or two everyday players in the lineup.

The truth to how this club will become a respectable and competitive team again rests squarely on the shoulders of their rotation. And Jon Lester, John Lackey and Ryan Dempster appear to be carrying the load without much difficulty.

There’s no reason to make too big a deal about it two weeks into the Grapefruit League schedule, but with this team, it’s the ultimate big deal.

“Anybody who says (in spring training), if they get their brains beat in, ‘Well, it doesn’t matter’ ­— well, it does, it affects you,” said Lester after his four-inning (one run allowed) start, his third of the spring, in yesterday’s 8-3 loss to the Pirates. “You want to have positive feedback on the things you’re working on. But, when it’s said and done, after that start go ‘OK, I got the things accomplished that I was trying to do. I threw a lot of changeups or I threw a lot of curveballs,’ whatever you’re trying to work on.

“So you can look at it both ways, but when you come down to it, we’re all competitors. I want to win this game just as much as I want to win a regular-season game, so I want good results.”

The results have been good — not great, but good ­ — and that’s encouraging.

Lester has the most official starts so far, and yesterday marked the first time in his nine total innings that he has allowed a run. It came off a leadoff triple to Starling Marte in the first inning.

Lester could not prevent Marte from coming around to score, but on a day where he could not trust his curveball or changeup, he battled through his four innings without losing the war. He walked three batters, gave up one other hit (a single) and struck out three.

On Tuesday, it was Lackey who sparkled in his three scoreless innings with no walks, three hits and two strikeouts.

Yesterday morning, Sox manager John Farrell was still reveling in the stint, calling the outing, “Outstanding. That was one of the more encouraging things of all of spring training and there’s been a number of positive things.”

And then there was Dempster on Sunday against the Yankees, when it did not matter that the lineup was populated by minor-leaguers. He allowed one hit and no runs over three innings, fanning three, but what mattered was that Dempster threw 25 of his 28 pitches for strikes.

Throwing strikes and getting outs — my gawd, it sounds so simple, and we aren’t even writing homilies like “going deep into games” yet.

But with the Red Sox coming off two disappointing seasons from their rotation, at this time, it counts.

Clay Buchholz and Felix Doubront get a pass from this conversation because they are behind the other three, from whom Farrell has seen a lot that he likes. Starting with: “A lot of quality strikes. With each outing, this being Jon’s third, I think they’ve done a very good job of establishing their fastball. As they’ve got into their third outings, they’ve gotten into their full complement of their pitch mix.

“Much was the case last night with John Lackey and today with Jon Lester. They’re starting to get the proper progression through camp, they’re getting a feel for all their secondary stuff. It’s been a pretty good work schedule for all three so far.”

Yes, we are less than two weeks into the Grapefruit League schedule, there are nearly four weeks still to go and, yeah, pitchers are ahead of hitters. But for this Red Sox team, at this point in a rebuilding season, this is what they needed to see.

“Obviously spring training is hard to tell, but with Lack coming back and throwing the ball like he is, it’s been great to see,” said Lester. “The biggest thing for us is getting off on a good start, getting into that five-day rhythm early. That’s big. If you can do that early on, it makes the other four guys’ jobs easier. You just kind of turn it over and over and guys are putting up zeroes.”

Go ahead and say it: The Red Sox starters are looking pretty good so far. As we speak, it’s the truth.